Fire Rising: A Wings of Fire Fanfiction
Prologue: A dragon was trying to hide in the storm. Cumulus clutched her fragile cargo closer as wet droplets pummeled her wings, face, talons, and scales, and lightning flashed in the sky. She had escaped the Sky dragon's palace unseen, somehow. If she could make it over the sea, she'd be safe. When she had escaped the Sky palace, the guards never looked down. They only looked forward, or side to side, never up, either. Her theft, however, had not been as stealthy as she had thought, and eyes the color of burning coals were already tracking her from below. The dragon on the cliff ledge radiated menace the way a desert radiates heat. The dragon's tongue flicked in and out, and his eyes narrowed as he tracked the gleam of blood red wings far up in the clouds. He hissed, flicking his tail ever so slightly. Two of the dragons accompanying him, both black as the night, flew up into the storm. A shriek echoed off the cliff as their talons seized the flame colored sky dragon. "Bind her mouth." the waiting dragon ordered, scraping his talons against the stone. Cumulus was already inhaling, ready to attack. "Quickly!" One of the dragons hurried over to a pile of smoldering coals, seized a chain from the pile, carried it over, and threw it over the sky dragon's snout. Cumulus let out a muffled scream. "Too late. You won't be using your fire on us, sky dragon." The two guards from before kept a firm hold on the chain, and a third walked over, and handed the waiting dragon an egg that was a bright golden red color. "She was carrying this, General Gyrfalcon." the guard said. "This is a SkyWing egg... and one of the queen's eggs that is about to hatch, too. Why would you betray your ruler and steal her egg, hmmm, SkyWing?" Cumulus glared at the dragon before her. Hissing steam floated into the air where a burning chain met fire colored scales. "You thought you got away unnoticed, didn't you, SkyWing? My ally is not a fool. Queen Sparrow knows everything that happens in her Kingdom. Lookouts reported a suspicious SkyWing sneaking out of the royal hatchery, and I decided that you might add some violence to my boring diplomatic visit." Gyrfalcon held up the egg to the firelight and turned it around slowly. A red-orange shape shimmered beneath the smooth shell. Gyrfalcon paused for a moment as rain drummed on the ledge around them. "Unless... you're not in the armies, are you? You're one of those insipid underground destiny mongrels." "The Talons of Destiny? You mean they're real?" one of the guards asked. Gyrfalcon growled low in his throat. "Of course they're real, you brainless son of a mongoose!" He snorted. "A few idiots crying over a little blood. Unwrap her mouth. She won't be able to burn us until her scales cool down." The guards took off the chain and threw it back into the pile of coals. Gyrfalcon leaned in closer, flicking his barbed tail inches from Cumulus' eyes. "Tell me, SkyWing. Do you really believe that uppity old NightWing's prophecy?" "Why should you care, Gyrfalcon? Besides, haven't enough dragons died for your fight?" Cumulus snarled, wincing at the pain in her jaws. "All of Aeglasaiea has suffered for the past 23 years. The prophecy says-" "I don't care. No prophecy decides what happens to me. Or to the rest of the continent, for that matter. Prophecy shmophecy. The war can go on forever, for all I care." Rain pattered on Cumulus' scales. "The prophecy will come true, whether you and your allies like it or not." "Really?" Gyrfalcon stepped back and turned the egg slowly within her talons. "So, SkyWing, is this egg a part of your pathetic prophecy?" Cumulus went still. Gyrfalcon lightly tapped the eggshell, and said mockingly, "Hello? Is there a prophecy dragonet in there, ready to come out?" "Leave it alone." Cumulus choked out. "Tell me, SkyWing," Gyrfalcon hissed, "What becomes of your precious prophecy... if one of the dragons never hatches at all?" "You wouldn't." Cumulus said. "No one would harm a dragon egg." Her golden yellow eyes were fixed desperately on his talons. "No 'dragon of flames' to help save the world. What a sad, sad story." Gyrfalcon began tossing the egg from one talon to the other. "Well, I guess that means that you should be very, very careful with this terribly important little- oops!" With an exaggerated lunge, Gyrfalcon pretended that the wet egg was slipping through his talons... and let it fall off the side of the cliff. "NO!!!" Cumulus shrieked, throwing off the guards and flinging herself towards the edge. Gyrfalcon slammed his massive talons down on Cumulus' neck. "So much for destiny." he smirked. "So much for the prophecy and your tragic little movement." "You're a monster." Cumulus choked out, writhing under Gyrfalcon's talons. Her voice cracked with despair. "I wasn't going to get this egg involved in the prophecy anyway! I-I just wanted a dragonet of my own, b-because I-I can't have any myself." Gyrfalcon leaned down to hiss in her ear. "Even if that's what you were planning to do, it won't ever happen, because by then, you'll be dead." His claws ripped through the blood-red dragon's wings, shredding them as Cumulus shrieked in agony. With a swift movement, Gyrfalcon stabbed his tail into the sky dragon's chest, and flung the long, blood-red body over the edge of the cliff. The sky dragon's screams cut off abruptly as she slammed into the bottom of the cliff. The SkyWing SandWing hybrid turned his orange gaze on his soldiers. "Perfect." he said. "That should be the last we hear about that stupid prophecy." He held out his talons so the rain could wash away the bright red dragon blood. "Let's go find something else to kill." The four dragons lifted off into the dark clouds. __________________________________________________________________ Unknown to Gyrfalcon and the three guards, was that the egg had not smashed on the rocks like they had intended. Another SkyWing, one who lived in the cliffs, had snatched the egg out of the air as it was falling. The SkyWing flew down to the bottom of the cliff and found Cumulus, barely breathing, but alive, somehow. "CuImulus, why did you do that?" "Pyre? Is... that you?" "Yeah, you big scavenger-headed idiot. What were you thinking, stealing from the queen like that?" "I-I wan...ted a dragonet to... call... my own... be...cause I... can't have... one... my...self." "Oh." "I... need you to do... some... thing for me..." Cumulus' breathing was coming in short, ragged gasps. "Take that egg... and hide it... some...where where no one... but you will... be able... to find... it... If it hat...ches... name the drag...onet... Faf...nir, after our... bro...ther who... was... killed... in... the war... several years... back." "Oh. Okay, Cumulus. I'll do that. Just for you." "Good... Give the drag...onet... my love... Py...re... Tell him a...bout me... Okay...?" "Okay." Cumulus' breathing grew faint, and Pyre put her talon to Cumulus' chest, and felt nothing. Cumulus was dead. Pyre glanced at the SkyWing one more time, then turned away and flew into the clouds. 'Guess that means that this dragonet is mine to raise. But first... I enchant myself so that I will be invulnerable and immortal. Now to figure out where to go... should I go to the Canyons? No... too risky. Sky Kingdom? Defenetly too risky. I can never go back there, not after what Cumulus did. I don't want to go to any of the other kingdoms, but I suppose I could go to the Lost City of Dragons. Yes. That's what I'll do. I'll hide the egg in the hatchery there, and leave it, probably cast a spell on it to make it dormant, and I'll leave it there. I think I'll rejoin the tribe in, say, 2 centuries. For now, I'll fly around and visit the other kingdoms.' Pyre gripped the wet egg and flew towards the Lost City of Dragons, hid the egg in the hatchery and cast a spell on it to make it dormant, then flew off, and started her new life. 'I'll never forget, you Cumulus. You have my word, both as a sister, and a friend. ' She glanced up at the sky, seeing that the sun was starting to peek through the clouds, and breathed in deeply. The egg was safe. She could start her new life right here, in the middle of the sky. 'I will not be known as Pyre to the other dragons I meet. I will be known as Kestrel, a SkyWing from a backwater town, in, say, the Kingdom of Sand. Yes. Be Kestrel, a SkyWing completely different from Pyre the SkyWing in every way except two: the memories, and the personality.' She breathed in deeply, and flew off into the horizon, happy that the dragonet was safe, and knowing that she had gotten a chance to start over. Chapter 1: POV-Pyre(Kestrel) 5,002 years later... The volcano was restless and so were the dragons in the SkyWing fortress. The volcano rumbled under Pyre's talons as she walked quickly through the stone halls. There were too many members of the fortress awake- too many witnesses who might wonder where in the world she was going in the dead of night. 'Why did it have to be tonight, out of all the nights that everyone could be awake, why tonight?' She was also practically screaming in her head, 'HURRY!!! IT'S HATCHING!!! DON'T GET CAUGHT! IF YOU DO, IT'S OVER!!! HURRY!!!!!' Suddenly, she ran into Thoughtfinder and Fiercehorns, two of the NightWing guards that were stationed on the island. "Are you all right, Kestrel?" Fiercehorns asked, sounding concerned. 'No!' "Yes, I'm fine. Just... going to get some air." "The egg you lost was due to hatch tonight, wasn't it?" "Yes." "Do you need someone to sit with you?" 'No!' "I know it's not the same, but when Peregrine took my egg-" Pyre could think of only one way to stop Fiercehorns from talking, and it was a little harsh, but she had to get to her egg, and she had to get there right now! "It's not the same at ALL!" she snarled, shooting a burst of flame out of her nose. "You have three surviving dragonets, and one of them is off on the continent, exploring and eating like a queen, while I'm sitting here starviHng. So don't try and act like you understand me!" Fiercehorns recoiled as if Pyre had bitten her. Thoughtfinder looked startled, a bit impressed, and maybe a little suspicious. Pyre whirled around and flew off to the tunnel that led to the Barren Rocks before either of them could do or say anything else. There was only one guard tonight. Usually, the guards slept like the rest of the tribe did from dawn to dusk-like sloths. It made it easy to sneak past them up the tunnel. But not tonight. "Do you think it will be tonight?" Obsidian asked. Pyre paused for a moment, thinking that the NightWing had guessed her secret. Then she realized he was talking about the Volcano. "No. Thoughtfinder says that it will be about five more years until the next major eruption happens." "Remind me why we trust that dragon in five years." Obsidian snorted sarcastically. "Don't you need backup for night hunting?" he asked. "I'll be fine. I was just going to find a sloth or a toucan or something for Sunstone to give to the queen..." "Ah. Keeping the queen happy. Always a good idea. Right. See you soon, then." Pyre bolted up the tunnel and jumped into the sky. She followed the signs she had left for herself, and reached the place where she had left the egg. She was finally here. Finally away from that island and the volcano, and finally able to be there for her- Her egg was gone. Pyre scrambled frantically around where she had left the egg. It couldn't be gone. After a moment, she saw it. It was in the center of a group of moonbeams. How it got there was irrelevant. All that mattered was seeing her dragonet hatch. Pyre somehow knew that he would be better than all the dragons on that death-trap of an island, including herself. Him. Somehow, she just knew. The dragonet would be male. Pyre crouched down and gently wrapped her talons around the egg. The silver egg. It struck her as odd, that her egg, once as normal-looking as any other dragon egg in the world would turn silver. The egg had once been a deep golden-red color, that much she remembered from the day that her sister, Cumulus, had fallen from the sky with the egg in her talons. It was faded by the time she came back to get it, but still the same color. As she watched, the egg shattered. Sitting in between her talons was a tiny, golden-red dragonet, his scales the same color as the eggshell. "Wow." Pyre gasped. The dragonet looked up, up, up into Pyre's face and wings towering over him. Pyre was awestruck by how beautiful the dragonet looked. His scales looked like they had been rolled in molten gold and then polished. His claws looked like tiny pieces of the sun. His tail was by far the most perfect tail that Pyre had seen in years, if not centuries, and he already looked healthier than all the other dragons on the island put together. He had scarlet teardrop scales by his eyes, the symbol of mind-reading, but Pyre didn't care. Her dragonet was beautiful. "I'm going to call you Fafnir, little one. You're going to have the happiest life any dragon has ever had, you're going to live forever and ever, and the volcano will never have you." she whispered. Pyre let go of all the worry and the guilt. She stopped thinking of what had happened and what was going to happen. She was right where she needed to be. A long quiet time passed and then... "KESTREL!!!" a voice bellowed into the mist-shrouded sky. 'Obsidian! Idiot!' Pyre thought. What if someone heard him? 'What would happen if he finds me with my dragonet?' she wondered. "Fafnir, listen. We have to hide you." she whispered urgently. "Rrrk?" her son answered. "Come here." she walked over to where she had originally put the egg, by a cluster of large boulders. Fafnir squeaked sadly and reached for the moonlight again. "No, you can't go out there. You have to stay hidden, do you understand? There are bad dragons out there, who might hurt you. You must not let any dragon find you except Mommy." "Arrwrk?" Fafnir asked, latching onto one of Pyre's talons tightly. "No, I can't stay. I'm sorry. But you'll be safer if I go. I'll be back as soon as I can. I promise. Please, please, don't leave this spot until I come. All right?" She didn't quite know what she was doing, but she put her talons gently around Fafnir's head and whispered, "Be strong. Be powerful. Be fearless." Then she made herself turn and fly away. Her wingbeats faded into the distance, replaced with the sad sound of silence. There was a long pause. Then the soft sound of rain beginning to patter on the boulders. Then a squeak. "Arrwrk?" Silence. Fafnir tried again. "Rrrk?" More silence. Then, barely a whisper: "Mommy?" Category:Fanfictions Category:Fanfictions (Incomplete) Category:Fanfictions (Semi-Canon) Category:Content (VanquishedHydra4844)